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Parker Posey Reads Prose

Actors Ed Norton, Ethan Hawke, and James Earl Jones have all done it, and now Parker Posey has, too: the indie actress has just recorded an audiobook. And for her first foray into books on tape, Parker didn't choose to read any old publication—she picked Betty Friedan's powerful The Feminine Mystique, the revolutionizing edict on women's rights. You can listen to Posey take on Friedan's 1963 text on Audible.com; the audiobook is part of the new Audible Modern Vanguard series, which features 34 groundbreaking works from the last half-century. Herewith, VF Daily talks to Posey about her latest booking.

VF Daily: How did you find the experience of recording a book compared with shooting a film?

Parker Posey: Reading this book was probably the most intense job I have ever done. It was so heavy and dense and complex. The book is a more-than-500-page manifesto about feminism. I kept postponing the recording and I was like, O.K., I am just going to go in and do it.' They scheduled the recording for 5 days and it ended up taking 11. I would record the reading for four or five hours and then go home and take a much needed nap. The amount of brain work was just crazy. I had acupuncture like four or five times. It kind of shook me up. I had these fantasies of words coming out of my ears and eyes, but I like to push myself, and this was a challenge.How did you get involved? What made you agree to recording for Audible?

Someone from Audible found me. One of the women there said, “We want to record The Feminine Mystique for books on tape and we couldn't think of an actress who hasn't been on the cover of Maxim.” But as an individual, I've had a really interesting career. It's been very passionate and unconventional. People always say to me, “You choose such interesting things to do.” But they really choose me. They kind of seem to come out of nowhere.

This was your first time reading The Feminine Mystique. What did you make of the book's material?

I found it terrifying to realize that humanity has the capability to be so mindless and inauthentic. I feel like our society right now is becoming less cultural, and there is a sort of mass brainwashing. One idea that struck me was, at one point, when we were all pioneering here in America, men and women were capable of so much more than buying and selling things and keeping up with the Joneses. And [Friedan] really makes this look like an immaturity and a refusal to grow up and be someone that has a purpose and a cause, and someone that believes in humanity, connectedness, and community. I don't know what happened to this sense of purpose. It's been replaced with an obsession with what's fashionable. That aspect of consumerism has sped up so much more than she could have ever imagined.

How did you relate the message of the book to your own life?

I felt very connected to Betty Friedan. She was so idealistic. But also, I am from the South. If any type of person is loaded with feminine mystique, it's Southern women. I realized how much I actually use this idea of guilt and repressed passions and sacrifice in my work. I noticed these things in women around me and how they sublimate their desires. But then I look at women like Hillary Rodham Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, and Martha Stewart, who are all women who have brought something very feminine and strong to American culture.

So, you think Friedan's message is still meaningful?

Yes. It was written more than 45 years ago and culturally as a whole, men and women have become as separated as ever. It's like the dissension between the sexes is getting worse. It's fascinating to look at the kind of movies that are out now and what has happened to the romantic comedy in the last 10 years. What is underneath all that? What is that dialogue? What is the man-boy saying to the woman-girl? This very passive dialogue is the problem that has no name, right there.